My favorite gifts to give

Happy New Year! All signs of Christmas have been taken down and packed up, other than the glitter and pine needles that will linger until next December. Now that all the presents have been unwrapped, I can finally share some of the gifts I was excited to give this Christmas. Shopping this year was so much less stressful since I found several gifts on my antiquing excursions throughout the year. I also gifted some handmade jewelry. If you know me, making things is not my forte, but I have taken to a few crafts this last year.

I will start with the gift that was one of my absolute favorite purchases from the Dallas Market's Vintage Finds show in June...I put this picture from the "Fluff" space in that post, but couldn't spoil the surprise and say that I bought one of the awesome vintage seed posters.

 I bought the one in the middle of the top row for my sister, who majored in agronomy and has spent many years working with corn.  I gave it to her for Christmas, and the very next day, she was offered a great job at a seed corn company. It will be the perfect accessory for her new office.

Just this week I stopped by Uncommon Objects in Austin, and look what I found:

If this store has it, you know it's hip, or at least weird. 

I also found this great antique wooden box for my sister. I love all the cities stamped on it. 

It was perfect for hauling home lots of her presents. 

Another antique gift I gave was rather hard to wrap due to its size and weight. I first discovered the charm of former farm implements while working with Karen at the Country Living show. Here is a look back at the beauty that was her booth:

The tiered trays were a hit. I fell in love with the plow disc stacked on top of the spacer, and I found several this summer on my travels. I made them all clean and shiny (please know I just refrained from using a hip hop reference here) by using the Rust-oleum Chrystal Clear Enamel, and I featured one as an ornament tray in my booth this Christmas. 

I was bummed to discover that someone disassembled my display, assumingly in an attempt to buy it, but they must have found something better as they headed to check out. My disc with the price tag never made it to the register and was found in another booth, yet my un-tagged spacer was paired and purchased with (though not paid for) that dealer's disc. Ugh. Really? I was pretty disappointed in this shopper's lack of conscience. 

Fortunately, giving the gift was much more of a success. My friend Rachel grew up on a farm and loves antiques as much as I do, so I knew she would appreciate this funky set of farm implements. She opened it while at her parents house and said her mom was intrigued as she opened the disc, well knowing that it came from a plow. After unwrapping the spacer, they saw the function of the duo. I'm sure her dad has lots of old rusty discs and spacers somewhere, but this one was clean and polished enough for the dinner table. I love how she has it on her dining room table with a candle, and she planned to serve appetizers on it for her New Year's Eve party. 

Now on to the gifts that I made, or rather put together: personalized necklace pendants.

This sweet photo is of my grandfather with my mom and uncle on an old tractor. 

This map pendant features my hometown, Heyworth, and off to the left, Funks Grove, home to Funk Farms.

I gifted this Austin one to my friend Meegan, who now lives in San Francisco. 

I discovered these great little pendants from my school librarian/junkin' friend Paulette, who wrote a detailed post about how to make a map pendant on her blog, My Junk Obsession. Let me tell y'all, she is so talented. These pendants are pretty simple (as even I can make them), but she also constructed her own coffee table out of old table legs, a handmade platform upholstered in leather, and an old steamer trunk. Check out her tutorial! 

Anyway, back to the pendants - I won't go over how to make them since Paulette's post does it so well, but I will add a few suggestions: the ONLY place I found 1.5" pendants with a deep bowl is Hobby Lobby, and I had to scour the jewelry aisles to discover them, as employees didn't know what they are. I ended up finding them at the end of an aisle, not actually in the aisle. They only had two, so I checked both Michael's and JoAnn's, but no luck. The best bet, if you want to make several, is to order them from Etsy. They are way cheaper and there are lots of styles from which to choose. I also think it would be cool to use a map from a geography book or atlas that would cover more territory for the small circle and give more perspective. 

Another craft which I have picked up is stamped spoon necklaces. These too were inspiration from a purchase at the Dallas Market Vintage Finds show; after seeing them around for awhile, I couldn't resist any longer, so I bought a wholesale lot of spoon markers from super-talented and sweet Maggie. They've sold well and I wanted to try my hand at this metal art. I spent much of my time last summer hunting for vintage spoons, buying the perfect metal letter stamps, and hammering away. It certainly isn't easy and requires much patience; one wrong punch and you ruin the spoon (or, if you are me, you turn it over and attempt to stamp successfully on the other side). I never did smash a finger, but I do think I tweaked my wrist after making so many! These spoons make awesome personalized gifts (as long as you don't smash your finger in the process), and they have been great sellers at the booth and the Barn Sale this fall. Speaking of which, I need to make more...and if you are interested in a custom order, just contact me! 

This picture was just snapped with my new-to-me fancy DSLR camera - I am so excited! Rachel is becoming quite the professional photographer and upgraded to an even better camera that will help her capture kids' movements, so my parents bought her old camera as a Christmas gift for me! I know *nothing* about how to take pictures or use a nice camera, but I just attended a three-hour class yesterday...basically it confirmed that I know nothing, and it was a beginners class. There is SO much to learn! But I am proud to say that I took the above picture in manual mode without a flash(!), and I even set my ISO, aperture, and shutter speed (in case you are a camera guru, I used ISO 400, shutter speed on 1/60th of a second, and an F4.5 aperture...if you have suggestions for indoor stills, please share!) And that's all I know about my camera with a lens. I hope to keep learning and look forward to bringing you much better pictures this year on the blog!

Hope you all had a wonderful start to 2013! 

Have a chic week,

~Sarah

My Junkin' Anthem

***Disclaimer: I feel I should warn you that I wrote this after hours of cabin fever in my house on this cold dreary Friday of winter break. This post pretty much revolves around hip hop. To show my love for this genre, I will drop as many hip hop related slang, phrases, artists, lyrics, or song titles as I can think of. I worked in a not-so-subtle reference before, and a fellow blogger commented on it; she is now my hero. I'd like to send a shout out to Beth from Olde Tyme Marketplace.  

Anyway, if you aren't down with rap, you probably won't dig it. Can y'all dig it? I can dig it. Whoomp here it is...

My iPod just completed a holiday cleanse; it was time to rid my playlists of the holiday tunes. I confessed my love for Christmas music in early November. I'm all about it until December 26, when I don't want to hear another note of 'Do you hear what I hear' until the following November. My shiny new iTunes gift card was burning a hole in my pocket, so I logged on to find some new music.

In the corner of my screen I saw a song called "Thrift Store" by Macklemore. This guy is such a talented rapper, or poet if you will, that even his name rhymes with his song title. I clicked on the preview, and well, let's just say it isn't kid appropriate, as even the clean version is pretty dirty; nonetheless, it made me LOL (but not quite LMFAO). Not only are the lyrics about wanting Grandpa's velour jumper and house slippers funny, but the beat is also pretty catchy. [I tried to find a more hip hop appropriate word for catchy, but the first synonym listed in the thesaurus is 'fetching.' That's not any better. Further down the list I found 'bodacious,' but that seemed too Bill and Ted. I'm at a Crossroad(s). Guess I will stick with catchy, but I just lost a lot of street cred.] This song has already gone viral on iTunes, landing at number 3 for this week's downloads, but I've been too caught up listening to the angels hark to notice this newcomer.

I downloaded the cleaner version, so "Thrift Store" will be my pre-game song to get me pumped for my thrifting adventures, just like when my high school volleyball team warmed up to Jock Jams before our  games 'cause it was Gonna Make us Sweat. Speaking of high school, there was a lot of quality hip hop back in the day. This was when Dr. Dre wasn't Nuthin' but a G thang. One of the last cassette tapes I purchased before transitioning over to CDs was Snoop Dogg's. Oh my God, Becky, that was TWENTY YEARS ago! According to Etsy, rap is vintage! How can this be?! I can clearly remember the time my dad drove my car to get the mail (yeah, it sounds uber lazy to drive to the mailbox, but in his defense, the mailbox was about half a mile away from the house and it was probably -20 degrees); when he came back, he asked, "Who is Snoop Doggy D - O - double G?"

I blame Will Smith for my obsession with hip hop; when I was taking a break from reading about Pa and Laura's adventures in Little House on the Prairie, I would watch the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. I'm pretty sure my interest in hip hop and rap started with memorizing the lyrics to the theme song (to which, by the way, I still know every word). My first CD was Naughty by Nature, gifted to me by my friend Kari (she's so very fly oh my it's a little big scary) because she knew I loved Hip Hop Hooray. Isn't It Ironic how lyrics from songs 20 years ago cycle back - the reverse of "hey, ho" is now quite a fetching song by the Lumineers.

But back to Macklemore and "Thrift Store." Check out these lyrics,

I'm digging, I'm digging, I'm searching right through that luggage
One man's trash, that's another man's come-up.  

So true! I can also relate to his line, "I'm so pumped up about some *@!& from the thrift shop."  Me too, Macklemore, me too. Whatta Man.

Pic of Macklemore

It brings a smile to my face and Makes Me Proud to know that even rappers enjoy thrifting now. I would like to extend an invitation to Mr. Macklemore to visit Austin; he can shop at Barn Chic Antiques and whatever he buys, I'll Throw It In the Bag. And maybe he can teach me how to Dougie.

If you like rap and haven't yet seen Jimmy Fallon's History of Rap performance with JT, be sure to check it out - it is bombdiggity and you'll want to thank me.

I want to thank YOU for joining me on this trip down hip hop lane. Were you Set Adrift on Memory Bliss? Whatever roads you travel, be careful in this winter weather. Even in Texas there is Ice (Ice Baby). I'm already looking forward to it Getting Hot in Here. Bring on spring! Or Summer Summer Summer Time....

Who Am I? I think I've been Hypnotized. Did someone spike my green curry? I'm sorry for the ridiculousness that is this post. Is it too late to Apologize? 

Ok really I gotta Stop. Collaborate and Listen. 

Have a chic week,

~Sarah

My Vintage Fir

I am not one for fur, even faux, but I am really into my fir this year. My Douglas Fraser fir that is! (Thanks for the clarification, Dad. So glad you read the blog!) Somehow, we scored a great tree this year. It is perfectly shaped, very fragrant, and houses our ornaments so well.  

After Christmas last year, I found a bunch of old glass ornaments. I bought lots at steep discounts with the intention to sell in the booth, but I also wanted to start an entirely vintage ornament tree. My mother in law gave me an entire container full of gorgeous blue, silver, and red ornaments. They were the perfect foundation for my vintage fir and I love that the ornaments are a family heirloom. 

I ended up taking the red ornaments off; they look great in the first photo, but they were so vintage that the red looked more pinkish in person and clashed with the other red in the room.

I especially love this year's tree because last year's tree was... 

 a bit unruly.

Better than the great shape of this year's tree is the history of the ornaments on the tree. In addition to my mother in law's ornaments, which were her mother's, I also got some great glass vintage ornaments with glittery snowflakes on them from my good friend Holly. Something no longer used in her family is now something that I adore and will admire each Christmas, fondly remembering the fun trip we took to Fredericksburg where I got them.

Decorating for the holidays has been so much more fun and meaningful with the vintage items that have been passed down to me or found in my travels. On my fireplace I have a stack of old old old Illinois law books from the 1800's that my dad gave to me, and my mom found the rusty old saddle stirrup in the pasture on the farm. Parts of home adorn my mantle.  

I put my poinsettias in an old porcelain bucket and a 2 gallon crock by the fireplace.

I bought this chair from Theresa at Marburger this fall, and it is far too pretty to keep in the garage. 

I think it may stay here permanently! 

This screen is the perfect display for our cards from friends and families.

I actually got crafty this summer and decoupaged these ornaments with missal hymns and glitter. It was a little bizarre to be making Christmas decorations during the summer Olympics, but I am so glad I did!

This glass (what do you call this?) is filled with ornaments from my grandmother.

My favorite poinsettia holder is an old olive bucket.

Wish I could claim I made this banner, but I could buy it for WAY less than I could even begin to attempt to make it. I feel this way about most things...

My front porch showcases an old sled that my mom gave me from IL. And those skates would probably fit me, but I don't trust myself wearing anything beyond heels, and even then it is questionable. If you are adventurous and in Austin, check out the ice-skating rink at Whole Foods downtown. 

And if you wear a size 8, you can borrow these skates!  

This side of the porch features one of the trees I found at Marburger this fall and an old milk jug I got years ago in Warrenton. The wheelbarrow was a steal years ago from Uncommon Objects. 

Andrew contributed the amazing light wrapping on the tree. 

Whether it is new or old, each holiday item has a story and brings back memories year after year. I won't always have a tree as great as this one, but it is what's on the tree that truly makes it special. This year's tree is the best yet because it incorporates family and friends, and that is what holiday time is all about. 

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

Have a chic holiday week,

~Sarah 

How spoiled they will be

I cannot wait for Friday. No, I don't have any Mayan last day celebration plans like maxing out my credit card or living like it's 1999. It is, however, the last day of school for 2012...but even that is not the reason I look forward to it. (Though I won't lie, I am a tad excited about the break and the holidays).

I can't wait to absolutely spoil my 100 students. It won't be much since there are so many of them, and I only have each class for a short 45 minutes, but we are going to make the most out of our time. There will be goody bags, gifts, games, santa hats, "dance party Friday" lunch tutorials, brownies, candy, and candy canes. It will be a free day in more ways than one - not only will we take a break from our curriculum, but we also have a designated 'free day' from the Texas Department of Agriculture's "Foods of Minimal Nutritional Value" regulations, and I plan to take FULL advantage of this day of caloric freedom for my students. Every banned sugary item is welcome, and we might even play a rendition of Chubby Bunny (taking suggestions for a more Christmas-y phrase that has the same sound effect) with marshmallows just because we can. Let the gluttony and fellowship commence. We can return to health and routine in 2013 [and track starts in January].

Amid so much sorrow and heartbreak, may we find many moments of peace, joy, and hope this holiday season.

Have a chic week,

~Sarah

Ski ya later

I've been having a bit of a dry spell at the antique mall the last couple of weeks, but I guess the cold front was all I needed to jump start some holiday sales this week! I finally sold the most amazing pair of old red wooden skis; I will definitely miss having them around the booth at holiday time as they have been with me for two seasons, but I am excited they have a forever home now. 

I also sold the vintage time card rack and the velvety deer and fawn. Yay for holiday shoppers! 

Is it Friday yet?! 

Have a chic week,

~Sarah

Christmas at the Booth

The booth got a little holiday facelift today; though there were already lots of holiday decorations, I added a few new touches and rearranged to make Christmas goods the first thing shoppers see as they enter the booth. 

 

The soft feathery white tree is a new find from a fun jaunt to Fredericksburg with friends yesterday! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now on to decorating our tree. I am so glad that we got it before the first real cold front of the season. Shorts and flip flops today, gloves and coat tomorrow. Looking forward to some more seasonal weather here in Central TX! Stay warm wherever you are. 

Have a chic week,

~Sarah

15 weeks til Warrenton & fall footage discovered

Believe it or not, we are nearing the halfway point between the fall and spring Antique Week shows in Warrenton/Round Top! I can hardly believe it has been over two months since the festivities; I was reminded of the fun times at the fall show when I found these pictures that have yet to be shared on the blog (gasp!). How terrible of me to keep those from you! I think these are from the day when I got locked in the antique mall, so I guess I have an excuse for not having shared them. 

At any rate, here ya go - the pumpkins may be a bit dated at this point in the holiday season, but consider it a preview for fall 2013. This is how retail works, right? To all those neighbors who had their Christmas lights up and on in early November, I got you beat - my front porch is *already* decked out (no pun intended) in pumpkins for October 2013! 

Now back to fall 2012 in Warrenton... 

These first few pictures are the work of the lovely and talented Diane of Blends in Georgetown. She and her husband Roger always have gorgeous furniture to compliment Diane's fun frocks. 

 

 

Near Diane's space is a sweet couple from Iowa who always have great displays..I just spent 15 minutes looking for their card, but I can't find it! So sorry...

 

I heart this ladder full of clocks.

Luckily I took a picture of this great tent's business name  - Rodeo Royalty Roadshow! 

Here is the tee-pee that really trademarks their brand. 

I think I saw them at the Country Living Fair last spring too! 

 

They had a mix of Native American decor with Victorian-style pieces - soft and bold all at once! 

They had tons of boots and I bet they sold out with all the rain the grounds had that weekend. Ladies were sliding all over in their flip flops! Sadly, I don't think it has rained in TX since then.
My rain boots are getting dusty.

This new vendor had a great Halloween/fall scene. I believe they were first time vendors at the fall show, and I sure hope to see them back in the spring!

It wouldn't be Warrenton without fields of rusted junk!

 

  

 

as well as boots, body parts, and bikes...

 Really wishing I had picked up one of these Christmas sweaters.
The one on the right looks to have a built-in collar and cuffs.

My garage could benefit from some organizing space. These lockers are great!

Thanks for joining me on a little fall flashback. I can hardly believe that fall has come and almost gone, at least according to the calendar. We should be seeing the patio furniture and swimwear out in stores any day now. 

Have a chic week,

~Sarah, the Barn Chick at Barn Chic